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Character Creation
The standard Marvel Heroic rules do not come with a detailed system for creating original heroes, but, thankfully, creating one for the sake of balance isn't very difficult. Powers, Specialties, and Steps Powers and Specialties are purchased with "steps". One step allows you to... *add a d6 power *add a d6 specialty *step up a d6 or d8 specialty *add one SFX Each player begins with one power set, which comes with one limit. It costs 2 steps to open a second power set, which also comes with one limit. Adding additional limits (beyond the one that comes with each power set) earns you additional steps on a 1:1 basis. Our player-characters in the D-List are intended to be low-level super heroes, so I'm awarding each player 5 steps at character creation. Affiliations, Distinctions, and Milestones There are no special mechanics for these; just choose them based on your character concept. However, note in the House Rules section that it does not cost anything to swap Affiliation dice, or change your Distinctions, so long as it makes sensefor your character in the context of what has happened in the game. I will be supplying a number of Event Milestones, which you are free to attempt or ignore as you please. If I don't mention them during play, please remind me! Backgrounds and Fluff Backgrounds and character fluff, while virtually optional in most RPGs, are actually quite crucial in Marvel Heroic. The whole concept of the game is backwards from the norm: instead of rolling a bunch of dice and building a narrative around the results, in Marvel Heroic you come up with a narrative first, which actually dictates what you get to roll. Thus, a strong character concept will actually give you more ideas during play, which will help you build stronger dice pools and ultimately give you a better chance at success. Above all else, this is what I love about the system. Praise for the system aside, here are some questions you might want to ask yourself when fleshing out your hero: *What is my character's name, age, and what do they look like? *What is their super hero name, and what does their costume look like? *Do they have any family, and what was their childhood like? *What do they do for a living when they aren't a super hero? Do they have any other responsibilities or hobbies? *Where do they live, do they have any roommates, live-in-relatives, spouses, or pets? *Why do they want to be a super hero, how do they feel about being on the D-List, and how badly do they want recognition? *How do they feel about teaming up with the other PCs? *How will they get along with other heroes, particularly the other PCs? *Do they have any other goals, desires, hopes, dreams, or fears, secrets, grudges, prejudices, etc? If you have the time, you may also want to seek out pictures of your character (just steal it from the web, I won't tell anyone!), something they wear or carry with them, or any other aspect of their life or personality. Bonus points if you're confident enough to do your own artwork!